New Delhi: With summer holiday season approaching, Air India has launched a 60-day advance ticket purchase scheme for vacation travellers with prices close to air-conditioned train fares.

The advance purchase fare (Apex) scheme targets vacation travellers in the upcoming summer holiday season luring them from train to air travel and is also an attempt to strengthen the national carrier's foothold in the leisure travel market, an Air India spokesperson said.

The advance purchase fare tickets are available for sale on various routes operated by Air India from Wednesday for travel commencing 60 days and beyond.

The national carrier has priced the tickets closely with AC train fares.

An all-inclusive 60-day advance purchase fare on Delhi-Mumbai sector would cost Rs 3,981 while on Delhi-Lucknow route it would cost as low as Rs 2,566.

The tickets can be bought through travel agents, online travel agents, Air India website and booking offices for travel commencing around the middle of May onwards, he said.

The scheme is likely to invigorate a price war among the airlines, after SpiceJet in January and Jet Airways last month came up with low priced tickets.

The latest Air India offer comes on the heels of the cash-strapped national carrier announcing 30-day and 7-day special fares recently.

Customers availing the offer can undertake travel from the middle of May, the airline said in statement.

According to the airline, for Mumbai-Kolkata, the fare is Rs 4,819 and that for Mumbai-Bangalore it is just Rs 2,930 while for Delhi-Chennai it is just Rs 3,769. All the fares are one-way prices.

Air India hopes the new initiative will spur growth and invigorate the market by encouraging holiday season travel, it said.

The Chennai-based SpiceJet was the first one to slash fares, after they sky-rocketed during the winter holidays, by introducing fares as low as 2,013 in January, forcing the rivals to roll out similar schemes.

Weeks after SpiceJet, full service carrier Jet Airways too put up 2 million seats on the domestic network up for sale as low as Rs 2,350 and IndiGo, GoAir and Air India too responded with similar offers.